Many longtime practitioners of yoga criticize the commodification of the practice in the Western world. But there are ways Western yogis can make money that focus on the practice’s key tenets, like mindfulness and unity. Leah Emmott, the Canadian creator of apparel company Inner Fire, knows this better than anyone: she makes yogawear out of recycled plastic bottles. She tells SCOPE how it’s done.

We are used to seeing archives as bland institutions for the preservation of worthy things. But “preserving” can also mean “hiding”, and artist/activist Mariam Ghani’s work with the Afghan national film archives shows why bringing archived material into the light can often be a radical act.

SCOPE gets schooled by Palestinian-Kuwaiti designer Danah Abdal on the importance of resurrecting traditional Arabian design methods. Her workshop series Nagsha is helping western designers to incorporate those methods in new but authentic ways.

What does hip hop with a Glaswegian accent sound like? Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott of CARBS provide us, somewhat sarcastically, with the answer to this all-consuming question in the form of their debut album, Joyous Material Failure.

Remember the movie The Ring, and how it brought your childhood fears and/or nihilist leanings to life? That’s where Croatian photographer Lidija Ivanek will take you, with her lonely landscapes and old school developing techniques.

Despite the fact that many people aren’t sure where their food comes from anymore, journalist Kiera Butler says a program over a century old may, if it tries, have the capacity to spread the sustainable food movement.

In ethnically-diverse North America, there can be a fine line between a natural melding of cultures and cultural appropriation — a now-familiar battle cry that rings out each time Iggy Azalea releases a new track. But when people accuse one another of appropriating aspects of Indigenous culture in particular, argues Monika Siebert, they’re often missing a more important political point.

Jamil Jivani is fighting racial profiling by police in a new way. Mediated discussions about ill treatment, he tells SCOPE, could well be the key to rewiring the system and avoiding large-scale injustice.

One of South Africa’s most important new artists raises difficult questions about colour, womanhood, and the nature of freedom. As another banner year for Mary Sibande ends, Lisa Meekison looks back on her development and on the many meanings of her work.

The massive architectural heritage of the Soviet era has long been a source of mixed feelings for Moscow’s residents, and in the building boom of the last two decades, much of it has been lost to the developer’s shovel. Belatedly, the city has now begun to acknowledge, protect, and adapt these time-worn, daunting, romantic buildings.

The construction of an exciting new building is a spectacle of optimism, and we tend to assume that once completed, a given structure will last forever. It never does, of course, but planning for the end of buildings remains rare. A new book, Buildings Must Die, sets out to change that.

In this age of stunningly-complex digital animations, in which computer technology seemingly removes all limits for artists, it is refreshing and inspiring to see how the physical constraints of pottery, drawing, and paper cut-outs can be transformed into a new kind of magic.

Moscow-born-New York-based photographer and international model Ira Chernova talks with SCOPE about being on both sides of the camera, her attraction to fairy tales, and the importance of shooting in the moment. (Photo: Alina Valitova)

Industrial-scale agriculture has placed small farmers and their local environments at risk not just in the United States but across the developing world, warns Eric Holt-Giménez of the “think-and-do-tank” Food First. Fixing the problem, he argues, isn’t a matter of waiting for top-down reform — but of generating sustained pressure from below.

At the forefront of South Africa’s emerging psychedelic rock movement marches The Very Wicked, a band that wants rock and roll to recapture its sense of story — and even, dare we say it, subtlety. And as a driving force behind Cape Town’s monthly “Psych Nights”, they’re bringing a lot of other bands along for the journey.

Karen Knorr has long used photography to explore the nature and implications of representation, and she has portrayed subjects and their contexts — from the members of London’s gentlemen’s clubs during the Falklands War to the animals and Mughal heritage sites of India — with this in mind, producing images that beguile and then unsettle.

From Australian Idol contestant to ARIA Song of the Year award-winner — twice — and having released four EPs already and soon a full-length album, it’s been a busy six years for singer-songwriter Matt Corby. The next six are likely to be busier.